The Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinal girls basketball team dropped two tough games on back-to-back nights Thursday, January 11th and Friday, January 12th.
The Cardinals fell to the Canistota Hawks 55-48 Thursday night in Canistota. The Hawks led by five points at the end of the first quarter 20-15. St Mary got the game within a point at 27-26, but Canistota finished the second quarter on a 6-0 run to take a 33-26 lead into halftime. The Cardinals closed the gap by the end of the third quarter to four points at 41-37. St Mary was within two points at 48-46 with 3:00 to play in the game, but the shots wouldn’t fall for the Cardinals the remainder of the game. St Mary was only able to score two more points, and Canistota took the win by seven points. Ella Heinitz led the Cardinals with 24 points in the game.
The Cardinals hit the road for the second night in a row traveling to Lake Preston on Friday. The Cardinals fell to the Divers 62-52. St Mary scored 15 points in the first quarter and trailed by one at 16-15. Lake Preston, however, outscored the Cardinals 17-7 in the second quarter to take a 35-22 lead at halftime. The lead for the Divers grew to 22 points in the third quarter, but St Mary as able to get it down to 15 at 49-34. St Mary would outscore Lake Preston 18-13 in the final quarter, but it wasn’t enough as the Divers held for the win. Maddie Schwebach led St Mary against Lake Preston with 18 points.
The Cardinals (3-6) will play the Lake Preston Divers again on Tuesday, January 16th in the opening round of the Dakota Valley Conference tournament. The game will be played in White at Deubrook High School at 6:00 p.m. Big Sioux Media will have a link to the Deubrook webcast.